16 June 2010

When four members of the Justice League of America - Green Lantern, The Flash, Elongated Man, and Zatanna - become stranded in Southern Arizona circa 1878, JONAH HEX and several other DC Comics Western heroes come face to face with DC's modern heroes- and mainstream comics storytelling - for the very first time**. Published in 1982, JLA #198and 199were titled "Once Upon a Time in the Wild Wild West..." and while they maintain a certain importance within the fictional annals of DC comics history, the comics also hold personal significance for our main man and yours, The Dabbler.

While The Dabbler was no stranger to the heroes, the League's time-twisting adventure will forever be Dabbler's first Justice League of America comic books -- as well as where he first met Jonah Hex and his heroic posse (as pictured above), the characters Scalphunter, Bat Lash, and Cinnamon. Those two comics, and the amazingly-drawn double-sized Justice League of America #200 that followed, established the foundation of Dabbler's life-long love of all things JLA. After one look atGeorge Perez' astounding Issue #200 wraparound cover art, we can only ask: how could they not?

The early 80's brought the world a lot of comics magic, and paved the way for Alan Moore's Watchmen, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, and The Dabbler's Abbracadabbling. As far as his relationship with comics stands, we're happy to report that it continues even today, as strong - and as expensive - as ever.

**We should note that while neither character remembers the encounter, Jonah Hex actually met an earlier version of the Justice League - and the still-active member Elongated Man - when both he and the JLA were thrown forward in time (Justice League of America #159 & 160) **